What kind of music and its directions are there? Music genres (complete list) Variety of music genres

Music is an integral part of most people's lives. Musical works are listened to in all corners of our planet, even in the most remote ones. Despite the immense popularity and importance of this direction of art, many people do not think about what kind of styles and genres of music... This article discusses the TOP-10 musical directions, which have not lost their popularity to this day.

Due to the variety of different genres, many of you are wondering: What styles of music are there? We have tried to answer your question and organize the main styles of music into a separate list, which, according to experts, will always be popular despite many years.

1 Pop music

2 Rock

3 Hip-hop

4 RAP

5 R&B

6

7 Instrumental music

8 folk music

9 Electro

10 Trance music

This music is performed by a generation of musicians who grew up on jazz, funk and hip-hop, and uses elements from all three styles. Acid Jazz features such as rich percussion and predominantly live performance put this style closer to jazz and Afro-Cuban music than to other dance styles. On the other hand, the accentuated groove brings Acid Jazz closer to funk and hip-hop. The term itself first appeared in 1988, at the same time as the name of an American record label and an English series of compilations on which jazz and Funk music of the 70s was reissued and which the British had previously called rare groove. In the late 80s - early 90s, many Acid Jazz performers appeared, who represented both “live” teams - Stereo MC's, James Taylor Quartet, the Brand New Heavies, Groove Collective, Galliano, Jamiroquai, and studio projects - PALm Skin Productions, Mondo GroSSO, Outside, and United Future Organization.

For the most part, the Alternative genre is characterized by the same features that have always been characteristic of Heavy Metal (powerful, loud guitars and thrashing riffs), but at the same time the alternative direction has enriched the genre with a punk concept. Rather than sticking to the traditionally frivolous themes that dominated the mainstream - Heavy Metal, Alternative Metal bands tried to tackle deeper issues in their music, much like Metallica did, but without their recklessly fast pace. intricate guitar solos and raucous, roaring vocals.
Actually, in music, alternative metalists initially adhered to more atonal (inharmonious) melodies than traditional metal bands. However, after the Great Breakthrough made by Nirvana in the early 90s, when Grunge began to dominate hard rock, all the characteristics of Alternative Metal became more blurred: this genre began to range from the thrashing, discordant Helmet to the important, stately riffs of Stone Temple Pilots ... Soon, most of the new metal bands were perceived exclusively as alternative ones, although apart from concert performances and characteristic fuzzy distortion of sound, they did not differ much from traditional metalists.

Ambient was created on the basis of experiments with the synthesis of electronic music by such musicians as Brian Eno and Kraftwerk and dance trance techno in the 80s of the 20th century. Ambient uses electronic reverb and spatial sound technology, where the texture itself plays an important role, not the writing of lyrics and music. Music changes slowly, has a repetitive nature, so to an inexperienced listener it may seem the same. Although the content and timbre of the compositions of the ambient performers have great differences among themselves. The ambient style became popular, cult music in the early 90s, thanks to the ambient-techno musicians the Orb and Aphex Twin. Ambient literally means surround, envelop, immersion. There is a legend about the origin of this style, according to which Ambient was invented by one of the greatest sound producers of the late 20th century, Brian Eno. Once in the hospital and lying bedridden for a long time, Ino began to listen to the sounds coming from the window of his room, looking for their inner melody in them. Then he began to record the noises of the environment and compose entire tracks from them. Then he released all this on several discs under the general name Ambient. Of course, now we need to distinguish between Ambient original and electronic. Electronic ambient is soft, viscous music, in which there is no pronounced beat. This is a calm music in which noise loops are used as a background, and the main melody plays unobtrusively and is usually very long. Ambient often uses snippets of phrases, bits of sound from old films, high-tech sounds and, most importantly, a lot of reverberation and echo. Now you can find very little ambient in its pure form. Ambient elements are now present in almost all styles from house to hip-hop, so this style has leaked into all the others and is not going to go back into oblivion, from which Eno pulled him out. The most famous Ambient musicians are Pete Namlook, Aphex Twin, Seefeel, The Future Sound of London, The Orb, Delerium.

With its origins in the prolific dance scene in Miami (Freestyle) and Detroit (Electro) in the mid-80s, Bass Music took Funky-Breaks from the 70s aesthetic into the digital age with frequency drum machines capable of driving such a frenzied bass beat. that most of the automotive or club acoustics, of those times, could not stand it. The first Miami pioneers were 2 Live Crew and DJ Magic Mike - they pushed this style into a characteristic and obsessed audience, and the Detroit pioneers were DJ Assault, DJ Godfather and DJ Bone who mixed all of the above with Techno to create an extremely fast paced, music. Bass Music even entered many dance charts in the early 90s. Bands like 95 South’s and 69 Boyz’s and their songs “Whoot (There It Is)” and “Tootsee Roll” not only hit the charts but were also certified Multi-Platinum.

Blues (English blues from blue devils - melancholy, despondency) is a separately taken blues composition or a genre of music that became widespread in the 20s of the XX century. It is one of the achievements of African American culture. It was formed from such ethnic musical trends of black African American society as “work song”, “Spirituals” and cholera (English Holler). He influenced in many ways modern popular music, especially such genres as “Pop” (English Popular music), “Jazz” (English Jazz), “Rock'n'roll” (English Rock'n'roll). The prevailing blues form is ¾, where the first 4 measures are often played on tonic harmony, 2 on subdominant and tonic and 2 on dominant and tonic. A characteristic feature of the blues is the blue notes. Often, music is built according to the “question - answer” structure, expressed both in the lyrical content of the composition and in the musical, often based on the dialogue of instruments among themselves. Blues is an improvisational form of the musical genre, where compositions often use only the main supporting “frame” played by solo instruments. The original blues theme is built on the sensual social component of the life of the African American population, its difficulties and obstacles that arise in the path of every black person.

Breaks Despite its "black" roots, by the beginning of the nineties House music became very rhythmically simplified and lost the original energy of the Negro ghetto. It was then that Breaks appeared, which used the sound of hip-hop, reggae, less raga.

Breakbeat - ("broken" beat) style, or to be more precise, a whole direction, was formed in the early 90s, stylistically finally formed in 1994. The place of his birth is considered to be Great Britain, and the main cities where this style was initially most widespread are London and Bristol. The name of the style fully reflects its essence: no straightforwardness and tenderness. Often the term "breakbeat" refers to very specific aggressive music at a tempo of about 130-140 bpm, with a tight guitar sound, with clear drum accents on the 2nd and 4th beats and fuss around the 3rd. The main criteria for determining a "breakbeat" are clean, practically unprocessed drums and percussion (with the exception of compression) and a standard 4/4 rhythm. The purposefulness of the sound is accentuated by tangible bass lines, using analogue devices such as the “Roland TB-303 ″. Sometimes, for the final pathos, wind instruments or a symphony orchestra are used.

Chillout (from the English Chillout, Chill out music) is a style of electronic music, the name of which comes from the English slang word meaning "relaxation".

Born in the early 1990s, the then chill out was relatively steady and slow. During this time, several seminal albums were released with the prefix "Chill Out" in the title. These albums were also closely associated with downtempo, trip-hop, slower house music, nu-jazz, psybient and lounge. This style of music was also influenced by trance, ambient and creative dance music (IDM) style. The term "chill-out" is mainly used to describe tonal, "relaxing" music, or at least not as tense as the aforementioned predecessors. It is wrong to attribute various kinds of hypnotic rhythms to chill-out. Sometimes the name "soft techno" is used instead of chill-out.
Recently, Chill Out has become popular among progressive trance and progressive house musicians, making their creativity more diverse. Therefore, sometimes this genre is called Ibiza Trance / Balearic House - after the name of the island of Ibiza, as well as Goa-trance after the name of Goa, India. This music reflects the atmosphere of the island of Ibiza, and as fans of the genre say, listening to this euphoric and spiritually uplifting music, you can vividly imagine the Mediterranean sunset. This effect is achieved through the use of synthesized sounds of strings, wave sounds, mandolins and guitars, as well as whispering vocals.
Chill-out is also called a separate dance floor at fairly large concerts (parties) in the style of Goa-trance and its derivatives, or in general a recreation area in dance clubs. In chill-out, they usually play relaxing music of the aforementioned styles, the dancers on the main dance floor come there to relax. The largest psi-events are also equipped with a special "dark" dance floor, where dark psytrance is played - a kind of opposite to chill-out.

Music (from ancient Greek μουσική - the art of muses) - the art of intonation; musical composition. Artistic activity in music is aimed at sound material (musical sound) - individual sounds or sound complexes (harmonic sequences, rhythmic figures, melodic intervals, modes, keys, sonic effects, etc.), organized in high-altitude, temporal, timbre, loudness and other relations with the aim of embodying a special imaginative thought that associates the states and processes of the external world, the inner experiences of a person with auditory impressions (artistic image).

Rock music is a general name for many types of music that have existed since the mid-1950s. The word "rock" - to swing - in this case indicates rhythmic sensations characteristic of these directions, associated with a certain form of movement, by analogy with "roll", "twist", "swing", "shake", etc. Such signs rock music, as the use of electric musical instruments, creative self-sufficiency (for rock musicians it is typical to perform compositions of their own composition) are secondary and often misleading. For this reason, the belonging of some styles of music to rock is disputed. Also rock is a special subcultural phenomenon; subcultures such as fashion, hippies, punks, metalheads, goths are inextricably linked with certain genres of rock music.

Rock music has a large number of directions: from light genres such as dance rock and roll, pop rock, Britpop to brutal and aggressive genres such as death metal and grind. The content of the songs ranges from light and laid-back to dark, deep and philosophical. Rock music is often opposed to pop music, etc. “Pop”, although there is no clear boundary between the concepts of “rock” and “pop”, and many musical phenomena are balancing on the edge between them.

The origins of rock music lie in the blues, from which the first rock genres came out - rock and roll and rockabilly. The first subgenres of rock music arose in close connection with folk and pop music of that time - primarily folk, country, skiffle, music hall. During its existence, there have been attempts to combine rock music with almost all possible types of music - with academic music (art-rock, appears in the late 60s), jazz (jazz-rock, appears in the late 60s - early 70s ), Latin music (Latin rock, appears in the late 60s), Indian music (raga rock, appears in the mid 60s). In the 60s and 70s, almost all the major subgenres of rock music appeared, the largest of which, in addition to those listed, are hard rock, punk rock, and avant-garde rock. In the late 70s and early 80s, such genres of rock music appeared as post-punk, new wave, alternative rock, wheat rock (although early representatives of this direction appeared in the late 60s), hardcore (a large subgenre punk rock), as well as the brutal subgenres of metal - death metal, black metal. In the 90s, the genres of grunge (appeared in the mid-80s), Brit-pop (appeared in the mid-60s), alternative metal (appeared in the late 80s) were widely developed.
The main centers for the development of rock music are the USA and Western Europe (especially the UK). Most of the lyrics are in English. However, although, as a rule, and with some delay, national rock music appeared in almost all countries. Russian-language rock music (the so-called Russian rock) appeared in the USSR already in the 1960s-1970s. and reached its peak in the 1980s, continuing to develop in the 1990s.

Club / Dance music comes in many other styles from Disco to Hip-Hop. There are many different dances in history, which are performed to different dance music, including Club / Dance. Club / Dance music became a style in its own right in the mid-70s, when Soul evolved into Disco and whole clubs were dedicated to dancing. In 75-77, only Disco was played by dance clubs, but by the end of the decade, it changed and moved into other styles. All these forms were collected under one term "Club / Dance", Dance-Pop, Hip-Hop, House and Techno and many other styles fell under this comb. All together these styles were connected and connected by only one thing - rhythm - in every dance style, rhythm remains the most important condition.

Club House this offshoot came in the early 90's when a wave of commercial music swept across Europe. Just as in the 80s disco was called quintessentially club music, in the 90s a direction was formed whose sole purpose was to get people to dance. To put it simply, the base remained House-based, however, all the dissonant melodic combinations were removed, the vocals became “sweeter”, the syncopations “difficult” for the perception of an ordinary listener were also discarded. The result is simple and accessible music with an unpretentious rhythm and simple arrangement. Some types of such music are also called handbag (the name comes from a kind of dance performed by little girls on the dance floor). The most interesting form of club house can be considered Mellow House, which uses a clean relaxation beat and corresponding sounds.

Hip-Hop / Trip-Hop

In Rap music terms, Hip-Hop is usually referred to as culture - painting on the walls of houses, dancing breakdance and spinning vinyl in addition to rap rhymes - surrounding music. As a musical style, however, Hip-Hop refers to the type of music that is created taking all these attributes into account. Since the direction rotated on the music scene long enough to have a history of its development, Hip-Hop teams began to look back at the work of such old-school masters as MCs Kurtis Blow and Whodini, as well as DJs Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. In fact, the last spike in popularity (Zulu Nation) occurred in the late 80s around two of the most famous Hip-Hop artists - De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. In the 90s, with the breakthrough in Rap music, dozens of Hip-Hop musicians began to return to their old school roots, including underground rappers such as Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch.

Basically, Hip-Hop is a rhythmic accompaniment to rap lyrics, performed in a rather leisurely manner. It takes a minimalist approach to the use of samples, loops and typical turntable playing. The main burden falls on the bass and on the dense sound of the drums. Bands such as Public Enemy and others used Hip-Hop rhythms, adding social rap lyrics to them.

Another member of a long line of trends that have stuck to UK dance culture in the post-acid house phase and are rapidly reshaping the ever-experimenting underground. Trip-Hop was created by British music publishers with the aim of characterizing a new style of downtempo, jazz, funk and experimental breakbeat music that began appearing in 1993. featuring record labels such as Mo'Wax, Ninja Tune, Cup of Tea and Wall of Sound. Similar (albeit mostly without vocals) to American hip-hop in its use of sampled drum breaks, this style was a more experimental phenomenon, inspired by more ambient elements and a psychotropic atmosphere. Thus, the term “trip” quickly took root and was used to describe everything from Portishead and Tricky to DJ Shadow and UNKLE, Coldcut, Wagon Christ and Depth Charge, much to the regret of many of these musicians who saw their music as pushing the boundaries of conventional hip- hop, not its new hype fork. One of the first commercially significant dance music-based hybrids, full-length trip-hop albums, became permanent top chart leaders in the UK, and according to artists such as Shadow, Tricky, Morcheeba, the Sneaker Pimps and Massive Attack, this the style ensured the penetration of much of the music of the first wave of "electronica" into America.

D`n`B Intelligence

DRUM'N'BASS is one of the embodiments of the breakbeat concept. Formed in the early 90s as a style that combines a bass line at 80 bpm and an abundance of different drums at a tempo of 160 bpm. Nothing more. Due to the temperament of the drums, this style is perceived as danceable, due to the slower (often reggae) bass line, it can be taken as relaxing music. Gradually, beautiful, sometimes melancholic melodies began to be added to this style. In short, by the mid-90s, "Drum'n'bass" slowly but surely transformed into intellectual jungle.
INTELLIGENT - music with this characteristic is intended more for listening and relaxing pastime than for use at parties, especially as a dance floor decoration. There are intelligent versions of "jungle", "techno". Compared to pure styles, their reasonable versions are more melodic, atmospheric, you can trace a theme there, often very nice.

Disco (English Disco, literally "disco") - a genre of dance music that emerged in the early 1970s. Disco was developed almost simultaneously in the US and Europe. American disco is characterized by a sound that is close to funk and soul. European disco was closely intertwined with traditional pop music and general pop music trends. One of the first disco hits in Europe was the song "J'attendrai" performed by Dalida (1975). In the United States, the first hits of the style are considered to be the 1974 Hughes Corporation Rock The Boat (American # 1 hit), Rock You Baby by George McCrae and Love's Theme by the Love Unlimited Orchestra (theme from The Heat). The general formula for a disco composition is as follows: dance rhythm at about 120 beats per minute and live melodies, often heavily orchestrated.

Downtempo (English downtempo - understated tempo) or downbeat (downbeat) - a style in modern electronic music. Music is characterized by a slow rhythm, most often broken. Close to trip-hop, but less oppressive and depressing. Close to ambient, however, it has a rhythmic structure, often consisting of loops that have a "hypnotic" effect. Differs in constant striving for innovation.

Easy Listening (Easy Listening) is not a special direction in music, but the attitude of listeners to it. But all the same, in this article we will call Easy Listening a certain style. Easy Listening - music that is easily perceived and does not require much understanding of the rhythm and melody. The history of this style begins in the 50s, when the famous musician Henry Manchini wrote the soundtrack for the first episodes of the cartoon "The Pink Panther" and many films of the 50-60s. The press has since begun to show hysterical interest in this direction. The largest record companies literally inundate Easy Listening musicians with offers for their albums. In addition, various companies are also re-publishing the classics in the Easy Listening style. Now we can hear this music in soundtracks for various films such as "From Dusk Till Dawn", "Pulp Fiction", "Four Rooms", "Generation X", " Romeo + (and) Juliet ”, etc.

Electroclash is a genre of popular music that incorporates elements of the new wave, punk and dance electronics. Electroclash musicians use: 80s sound traditions (synthesizers, often early analog, drum machines), retro sound, musical minimalism, combining it with 70-80s visuals, vintage aesthetics of disco and punk. Prototypes of electroclash aesthetics can be seen in the cult film Liquid Sky. Suicide is considered one of the founders of electroclash. Electroclash gained popularity in the late 90s in New York and Detroit. The official birthplace is the Lacks Club in Williamsburg, where Larry Tee, the man who coined the word "electroclash" and owns the rights to it, threw parties. The origins of the name lie in the intersection of influences experienced by a number of European and American groups working in this vein. Lyrics mostly borrow punk themes, are often aggressive and pay more attention to emotions than technique.

Electronic is a music school focused primarily on the study and application of the possibilities of sound synthesis, the creation of completely new, previously unheard, artificial timbres. Historically, the ground for the emergence of electronic music was prepared by the development of the sonic interpretation of sound in the works of composers of the first half of the twentieth century. Electronic music originated in Germany and first made itself known in 1951, when W. Mayer-Eppler demonstrated an example of editing "electric sounds" at the Summer Courses in Contemporary Music in Darmstadt. The largest representatives of the electronic school are the Germans Herbert Eimert, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hans Werner Henze, the French Henri Pusseur, Pierre Boulez, the Italians Bruno Maderno, Luciano Berio, the Japanese Tosiro Mayuzumi, etc.

Representatives of the electronic school operate with sound at the level of its primordial basis - that is, the overtone series. The achievements of the electronic school have greatly influenced pop, rock and contemporary dance music.

Folktronica or Electrofolk is a genre of music that includes various elements of folk music and electronics. The term folktronica, which from now on "branded" electronic music with elements of ambient, folk, jazz, classical and hip-hop, in the creation of which mainly analog synthesizers are used.

Funk (English funk) - one of the fundamental trends in African American music. The term denotes a musical direction, along with soul, which constitutes rhythm and blues, as well as a style of dance to this music. Funk began to take shape in the 1960s as a counterbalance to the growing commercialization of rhythm and blues. The founders of the style were James Brown and George Clinton. The name of the style comes from the word "funky", which in jazz jargon means "bizarre, intricate manner of performance."

Funk is, first of all, dance music, which determines its musical characteristics: the extreme syncopation of the parts of all instruments (syncopated bass is called "funky"), pulsating rhythm, screaming vocals, multiple repetitions of short melodic phrases. Larry Graham is often credited with inventing the "percussive bass technique" slap, which has become the hallmark of funk. Guitarists in funky bands play in a rhythmic style, often using the wah-wah sound effect. Dead or muted notes are used in riffs to reinforce the percussive elements. Jimi Hendrix was a funk rock pioneer. The synth-funk style became the follower of funk in the new century.

In fact, Fusion (from the English “fusion”, “fusion”) is a fusion of two or more musical styles (for example, English Art-rock, in which elements of classical music and rock arrangements of instrumental parts are “fused”). However, most of the bands classified as Fusion performers play a fusion of jazz and rock, pioneered by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who pioneered the use of power tools and rock rhythms in long jazz improvisations in the mid-60s. Davis' numerous followers - John McLaughlin, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Chick Corea, Joseph Zauinul and Wayne Shorter - somewhat modified the fusion of jazz and rock, shifting the emphasis to rock, which ensured the style of success among young audiences. Complex piano and guitar chords, virtuoso instrumental solos have become characteristic of this direction. In the late 70s, jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, known as a virtuoso of free jazz, made Jazz-Rock Fusion more powerful, dynamic and called his version "Harmonic Fusion".

Pop (eng. Pop-music from Popular music) is a direction of modern music, a kind of modern mass culture. This is not just popular music, but also based on pop rhythms traditional for the Western world. In various regions of the world, it is based on Western pop rhythms, but only with some elements of regional varieties of local traditional music. Pop music can mimic the different musical styles that are most popular at the moment, but the rhythmic basis changes little. Therefore, pop music has little effect on music of different genres and styles.

This style emerged in the mid-80s in Chicago. In the era of undivided rule of disco, this style was very pretentious and, of course, ultra-fashionable in very narrow progressive circles. The house style was created exclusively for dancing and was created exclusively with electronic musical instruments, drum machines and synthesizers. There are several versions of the origin of the name of this style. One of them says that House was named after the name of the Warehouse club, in which local DJs first began mixing Kraftwerk music with straight beats made on a drum machine. House music has changed a lot since then, in the 90s it became the most relevant and fashionable, dozens of new styles were born on the basis of house, and house compositions took their leading places in the charts. House is undoubtedly the main style of the 90s. You don't need to explain how house sounds. House music is not very fast, about 130-140BPM, accompanied by an absolutely straight beat (a clap or snare is applied to every second beat of the barrel), a hat sounds on every sixteenth beat. That's the whole house. Modern house went back to its roots and began to use many elements of disco, so in the late nineties there was a real revival of this style. However, it became not too solemn due to the fact that hip-hop has finally taken root in pop culture, and house now belongs to the style of the last century.

A complex term meant to describe electronic music from the 90s, which can be used equally conveniently on the dance floor and at home. Over time, the style of IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) gained a lot of negative notoriety among dance musicians and fans who were guided by only one question, whether they played meaningless dance music or not. Born in the late 1980s, the sound grew out of a mix of heavy dance, mostly from raver parties and big club events, plus downtempo DJs such as Mixmaster Morris and Dr. Alex Paterson combined Chicago house, soft synthesized pop / new wave with ambient, encouraging a new wave of musicians inspired by a wide variety of musical sources. (During these years, many DJs and musician also protested against the growing charting orientation of British dance music with the new hits “Pump Up the Jam” from Technotronic and “Sesame's Treat” from Smart E's.) The genre is actually a prolific collection from Warp studio called Artificial Intelligence, which introduced listeners around the world to half a dozen central performers in this style: Aphex Twin, the Orb, Plastikman, Autechre, Black Dog Productions and B12. Other major record companies Rising High, GPR, R&S, Rephlex, Fat Cat, Astralwerks also released high-quality IDM, although by the mid-90s most of the electronica music recorded for listeners pushed studios to further experimentation and bit orientation. With no central, commercial scene, North America became the most fertile and hospitable ground for IDM, and by the late 90s dozens of established studios had opened their doors to work with musicians in this style, including Beat, Isophlux, Suction, Schematic and Cytrax. Despite frequent attempts to rename the style (Warp coined the term "electronic listening music" and Aphex Twin settled on "braindance"), IDM's style remained a viable way for fans to express their usually confused preferences.

"Independent" rock. Usually, the definition of "indie bands" (and, accordingly, "indie rock") includes collectives and performers who work outside the sphere of interests of large record companies and record in the so-called "indie" - or "independent" companies. Often the "independence" of these companies means low-budget, even more often - the desire to play and promote music that is of interest to a very limited circle of listeners, that is, commercially unpromising. The British and American music press tends to view indie rock as the art of snobs, although in some cases "independent" bands create truly talented works for which the general public is not well-prepared. As a rule, the style of indie bands has nothing to do with their "independence" - it can be hard rock bands or psychedelic ones, the main thing that unites them is the desire for some kind of artistic integrity and a declaration about the "unmarketable art". Since the early 90s, the concepts of "indie" and "alternative rock" have become synonymous. Typical Representatives: Nirvana, Jesus Lizard, Porno For Pyros, Sonic Youth, etc.

The culture, conceived and created as anti-music, did not last long. The music of noises really began to be perceived as music, it is quite sold and bought and “caresses” the ears of hundreds of people around the world. This certainly has something to do with the world of electronic music, if only because Kraftwerk themselves stood side by side at the origins of all this.
Industrial styles are distinguished in: Percussion Industrial, Improve Industrial, Industrial Noise, Musique Concrete, Electro Body Music, Aggro-industrial and Darkwave.

This dissonant, harsh sounding music emerged from experiments with electronics and recording of such bands of the mid-70s as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle (the name of the label of the second of them - Industrial Records - gave the name to the new style). This music was full of electronics, distortion and was too avant-garde for the rock of that period. Following these initial designs, Industrial Dance groups such as Ministry, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy emerged in the mid-80s. Industrial became heavy metal over the next decade, with artists such as Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie, Marilyn Manson gaining widespread popularity.

Jazz (English Jazz) is a form of musical art that arose at the beginning of the 20th century in the United States as a result of the synthesis of African and European cultures and subsequently became widespread. The characteristic features of the musical language of jazz were initially improvisation, polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythms, and a unique set of techniques for performing rhythmic texture - swing. The further development of jazz occurred due to the development of new rhythmic and harmonic models by jazz musicians and composers.

Latin (Spanish música latinoamericana) is a generalized name for musical styles and genres of Latin American countries, as well as the music of immigrants from these countries, compactly living on the territory of other states and forming large Latin American communities (for example, in the USA). In colloquial speech, the abbreviated name "Latin music" (Spanish música latina) is often used.
Latin American music, whose role in the daily life of Latin America is very high, is a fusion of many musical cultures, but it is based on three components: Spanish (or Portuguese), African and Indian musical cultures. As a rule, Latin American songs are performed in Spanish or Portuguese, less often in French. Latin American performers living in the United States are usually bilingual and often use English lyrics.

Spanish and Portuguese music does not belong to Latin American, being, however, closely related to the latter by a large number of connections; and the influence of Spanish and Portuguese music on Latin American is reciprocal.

Lo-Fi (English Lo-fi) - a direction in music, which is characterized by low quality sound recording. Many lo-fi bands record their music on cheap cassette recorders. This is a kind of protest that is inherent in alternative rock. The lo-fi movement began a long time ago. All early rock 'n' roll records (Buddy Holly, The Beach Boys, Beatles), 1960s garage rock, The Velvet Underground albums, late 1970s punk rock can be classified as low fay. However, as a genre of its own, lo-fi stood out in the alternative rock of the 1980s. Indie rockers of the time preferred to record on non-professional four-track tape recorders, but it wasn't until the 1990s that lo-fi became well known with bands such as Beck, Sebadoh and Pavement. Today, many release groups of the mp3 scene use the term Lo-Fi, placing it in ID3 tags of the music genre to denote the belonging of this or that mp3 release to the style of quiet, calm and beautiful music with a slow rhythm: chill out, lounge, downtempo, trip hop, acid jazz, etc.

Lounge (also lounge) is a popular music term for light, background music, which was originally often sounded in halls (hence the name - lounge - hall, living room, salon) of hotels, shops, cafes , in the elevators. Unlike the more general term "light music", the lounge is characterized by a greater jazz influence, intimacy and improvisation. Although there is specially recorded music for such purposes, the term “lounge” encompasses a wide range of performers in a variety of genres, from jazz, bossa nova to electronica. A common characteristic is light, soothing compositions. Any musician playing to the public in restaurants and shops can literally be considered a lounge performer. Lounge music is associated with parties with an indispensable martini. In the US music industry, lounges intersect with so-called bachelor living room music, another format featuring experimental kitsch performers.

There is often an opinion that noise is practically the same as Dark Ambient and this is probably correct. Just like ambient, pure noise is characterized by the absence of a clearly expressed melody and rhythm, but it is distinguished by a heavier and darker sound and, as a rule, a very dirty sound. Noise is characterized by industrial noises and playing on random coincidences of sounds. Also, such directions as rhytm & noise are distinguished (the term Power Electronics is also sometimes used), i.e. rhythmic noise (Master / Slave Relationship, Hunting Lodge, Esplendor Geometrico, P.A.L., Blackhouse, Allerseelen) and japanoise (Aube, Merzbow, Masonna), i.e. Japanese noise, the most radical form of noise, compositions in which, as a rule, are uniform tone aggressive noises.

The history of the Goa style is quite intricate. A few decades ago, this term was used to describe the style of music that was performed in the town of Goa in India. European musicians, inspired by Indian philosophy, culture and aesthetics, tried to express their feelings in music and named the style in the same way Goa. Gradually, the concept of Goa-Trance became somewhat blurred, many musicians, who took Goa-trance tracks made by the followers of Indian culture as a standard, began to sculpt their own creations, not an inch trying to delve into the roots of real Goa music. Goa-trance began to be called music produced by just anyone. Gradually, the styles were nevertheless divided from all this pseudo-Goa music, a separate layer was singled out called Psychedelic Trance. The origin of Psychedelic Trance is the British Isles, and later this style spread to Germany, Holland, Denmark and the rest of Western Europe. What is Goa Trance? It's a bland style. There is no hard beat here. The basis of Goa is melody and harmony. Psychedelic also includes intricate synthesizer lines, transforming, sometimes sharp and bright, sounds associated with hi-tech / space stylistics. There is no heavy bass in both styles, although there are additions of pulsating ultra-low bass. You can meditate to this music, you can dance, you can meditate. Goa / Psychedelic Trance is not a pure dance style, it is a complex compilation of different styles and concepts, from esotericism. Traditional Indian instruments such as sitar and sador (or their electronic counterparts) were often used to create music in combination with the powerful, hypnotic synthesizer that trance has always been famous for. This style is significantly less suited to DJ and vinyl work than other electronic dance styles (DAT was often used instead of vinyl). Therefore, the Goa style until the end of the 90s had a relatively small number of DJs who propagated it around the world. Records such as Dragonfly, Blue Room Released, Flying Rhino, Platipus and Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto Fluoro have become important sources of new music material. UK's most popular DJ Oakenfold has finally provided Goa trance with a huge fan base that has been lacking for several years. He promoted this music on radio broadcasts and in clubs across the country. In Britain (Return to the Source) Goa trance was also well received, with the studio producing three best trance compilations. Labels: Perfecto Fluoro, Tip Records, Symbiosis Records, Flying Rhino, Blue Room, Transient.

Rap (English rap, rapping) is a rhythmic recitative, usually read to music with a heavy beat. A rap artist is called a rapper, or more generally MC.

Rap is one of the main elements of the hip-hop style of music; is often used synonymously with the concept of Hip Hop. However, rap is used not only in hip-hop music, but in other genres as well. Many drum and bass artists use rap. In rock music, it is found in genres such as rapcore, nu metal, alternative rock and alternative rap. Pop musicians and contemporary RnB performers also often use rap in their compositions.
The word "rap" comes from the English rap - knock, beat (a hint of the rhythm of rap). To rap also means to speak, to speak.
Later, erroneous backronymic theories arose, according to which the word rap is supposedly an abbreviation. They called transcripts such as Rhythm and Poetry, Rhytmic African Poetry, or Radical American Poetry, etc. Rap ​​first appeared in the 1970s years among African Americans in the Bronx, where he was "exported" by visiting Jamaican DJs. Initially, they read rap not for commercial purposes, but for the sake of pleasure, and at first they did it mainly by DJs. They were simple rhymed verses addressed to the audience. Performing rhymed chants right on the streets to this day remains a tradition in black neighborhoods. In addition, the so-called. "Battles" - verbal duels in which two rappers quarreled, keeping the rhyme and rhythm. Battles can be not only swearing, it can be a submission of rhymed text on a specific topic.

The genre and culture of hip-hop, of which rap is a major part, peaked in popularity in the 1990s. Rap has also had a major impact on R'n'B music.

R&B - (Rhythm and blues), a blues vocal and instrumental style of 1930s Negro music influenced by swing. Subsequently commercialized. It is considered one of the earliest forms of Negro rock music. Its commercial modifications, created by white musicians, include "rock and roll" and "twist".

Reggae music was born in Jamaica in the early 60s, its origins are numerous: Ska, Rock-Steady, calypso (music of Trinidad and Tobago), Zouk (music of the Antilles), Soul and, of course, Jazz. In the middle of this century, the Caribbean musical styles of Ska and calypso became fashionable among the British colonists in Jamaica, spread throughout the New World and became popular among Europeans. Jamaica was undergoing stormy socio-political events at this time, and it was time for music to reflect the social context. Black Jamaicans needed a sound that would convey exclusively their mood and attitude to what is happening in their lives. New music was played from the “unemployed street”. It was a slow motion combination of Ska and Rock-Steady with a boosted bass line. The centers of communication for young people of both sexes were the "disco" - Dance hall or dances, and all kinds of "stress" in the crowded city crowd of lumpen constantly took place at the "dances". Then, in one of the first songs by Bob Marley, “rude boys” were asked to “cool down” - the songs acquired social meaning. The arrival of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I in 1966 in Jamaica caused an extraordinary uplift among the majority of Jamaicans. For the Rastafarians, this was an event of the utmost importance. His name and faith in the Lord aiseno all the best in reggae. When soulful words were laid on good dance music, hymns were born. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bani Whaler are revolutionaries with guitars, their call is the revolt of the spirit, through the realization of His reality, as well as through the intention to throw off the shackles of the slave habit of following the paths of Babylon. Their global message to all the oppressed found a global response: “Get up! Arise! Stand up for your rights! " It is clear that having got the opportunity to record and publish their own music, Africans turned to their tradition and found there a sound that is called: “Roots” and released musical products under the general name “Reggae”. I must say that the Rastafarai movement is developing independently of reggae, but many musicians praise the Almighty in their songs.

Tango (Spanish tango) - 1. An old Spanish folk dance. A pair ballroom dance of free composition, characterized by an energetic and clear rhythm. 2. Music for such a dance. Initially, it was developed and spread in Argentina and Uruguay, then it became popular all over the world. Previously tango was known as criollo tango, or simply tango. There are many dance styles of tango today, including Argentine tango, Uruguayan tango, ballroom tango (American and international style), Finnish tango, and ancient tango. Argentine tango is often regarded as an "authentic" tango as it is closer to the one originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay.
Music and dance elements of tango are popular in dance activities, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming, and more.

Techno originates from electronic house music developed in Detroit in the mid-80s. Where house still has a clear connection with disco, even when the style was completely mechanical, techno has always been about strictly electronic music intended specifically for a specific small audience. Early techno musicians and DJs Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May focused on the electronic, synthesized beat of electro-funk artists like Afrika Bambaataa and synth-rock artists like Kraftwerk. Techno was only an underground phenomenon in the US, but in the UK it burst into the mainstream music scene in the late 1980s. In the early 90's techno began to break down into many subgenres including hardcore, ambient and jungle. In hardcore techno style, the beats per minute in each composition was increased to ridiculous and danceable levels in order to chill and alienate the wide audience. In the case of the Ambient style, everything happened the other way around - there was a decrease in rhythm and the appearance of spatial electronic textures, it was used as relaxing music when ravers and club youth needed a respite from acid house and hardcore techno. Jungle was almost as aggressive as hardcore, combining energetic techno beats with breakbeats and danceable reggae. All subgenres of techno were originally intended for use in clubs where DJs mix them. Consequently, most of the music was available on 12-inch singles or compilations by various musicians, where the compositions were quite long, which gave the DJ a lot of material for mixing. In the mid-90s, a new type of techno musician emerged, mostly ambient artists like the Orb and Aphex Twin, but also heavier musicians like the Prodigy and Goldie they began to create albums with compositions that did not contain raw material for DJ mixes. Not surprisingly, these musicians, especially the Prodigy, have become the stars of world techno.

This style broke loose in the early 90s, leaving German techno and hardcore behind. Trance is based on endless repetitions of short synthesizer samples throughout a track, while allowing minimal changes in the rhythm and frequency characteristics of the synthesizer in order to be able to distinguish between songs. The effect of such music is that the listeners are immersed in a state of trance, similar to a religious one. Despite the decline in interest in music in the mid-90s, trance returned again, but already towards the end of the century, displacing the house style from the world music arena as the most popular style of alternative dance music. Influenced by acid house and Detroit techno, trance's development coincided with the opening of R&S Records (Ghent, Belgium) and Harthouse / Eye Q Records (Frankfurt, Germany). R&S has defined a format with singles such as “Energy Flash” (Joey Beltram), “The Ravesignal” (CJ Bolland) and other tracks from Robert Leiner, Sun Electric and Aphex Twin. Harthouse Studio was opened in 1992 by Sven Vath in collaboration with Heinz Roth & Matthias Hoffman. She had a significant impact on the sound of trance itself, thanks to compositions from Hardfloor (“Hardtrance Acperience”) and her own composition Vath (“L'Esperanza”), plus all the releases of the bands Arpeggiators, Spicelab and Barbarella. Musicians such as Sven Vath, Bolland, Leiner and many others began to play music in its entirety (without abbreviations), although this did not make much of a turn in the field of world music. Despite a long period of formation and development, the trance style completely disappeared from the world arena, ending its influence on British musical culture in the late 90s, it was replaced by breakbeat dance (trip-hop and jungle). The classical German sound did make its own changes, so the term "progressive" trance appeared, used to describe the influence from the soft forms of house and Euro dance. By 1998, most of the famous DJs such as Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong, Tony De Vit, Danny Rampling, Sasha, Judge Jules were playing trance in the most prestigious British clubs. Even the USA has taken notice (finally) of this style, led by great DJs including Christopher Lawrence and Kimball Collins.

Before you begin to understand the genres, of which there are so many in music that they are already difficult to classify, you need to understand the musical genre. In music, genre (from the French Genre or from the Latin Genus - species, genus) is a broad and multifaceted concept denoting one or another kind of works. Recently, we have often seen how the word "classic" is used as the name of a genre. For example, in many players, the equalizer has settings by genre, and among them - "classic". In reality, a classic, of course, is not a genre, but a broad concept that should be understood from the context. Classical music - any time-tested music, academic, folklore, etc. Within the classics itself, several hundred genres can be distinguished. In academic music, the most famous of them are opera, operetta, vocalise, symphony, oratorio, cantata and others. In folklore (or folk music), genre differentiation is somewhat different, due to the antiquity of its origin. Instrumental, song and dance genres are distinguished in it. Folk should not be confused with ethnic music. Ethnicity (ethno) is the adaptation of the music of the peoples of the world (mainly Africa and Asia) to Western standards, that is, not quite authentic music.

A colossal number of new genres were born throughout the 20th century. First of all, it is blues and jazz. The blues originated in the late 19th century and is a mixture of African American folk music and Anglo-Saxon musical tradition. As one of the greatest bluesmen, Willie Dixon, put it, "the blues are the roots, the rest of the music is the fruit." Indeed, it was thanks to the blues that jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, rock and a number of other genres were born.

Jazz based on blues and ragtime is characterized by great incendiary, improvisation, syncopated rhythm. Some subgenres of jazz - bebop, then cool jazz - approached the professional-academic genres. Jazz has become elite music.

In the 50s, rock and roll emerged in the USA. It was an incredible mixture of many seemingly incongruous genres from to boogie-woogie. It was from rock 'n' roll that pop and rock were born, and from rock - that huge number of subgenres and sub-styles that exist now.

Separately, we need to talk about electronic music and its genres. Electronics is much older than ordinary people are used to thinking. The first steps in this area were made in the first half of the XX century, when the theremin was first invented, then the magnetic tape for sound recording. But the turning point came in the 1950s and 60s, when the first computers began to appear in the studios with the help of which it was possible to create completely electronic compositions. The music of avant-garde composers who used the latest computer technology is classified as academic electronics. Many different genres were subsequently born from it, the most significant of which are: ambient, industrial, noise, synth-pop, etc.

Finally, such a popular genre as rap cannot be ignored. The word rap itself is not an abbreviation, but it means “knock”, “light blow”. Rap is the most important genre of hip-hop style that originated in the 80s. In rap, rhythmized lyrics are read to music with a heavy beat. Rap artists are called either rappers or MC (Master of Ceremonies).

Music genres

Blues(English blues, from blue devils - melancholy, sadness) - originally - a solo lyric song of African Americans, later - a direction in music. The blues appeared in the second half of the 19th century. in USA. Blues melody is characterized by a question-and-answer structure and the use of a blues scale. The lyrical lyrics of a variety of blues have reflected the theme of social and racial oppression.

Vocal music- this is music in which the voice dominates or is equal to the instruments, with accompaniment or a cappella. Large genres - musical drama, oratorio, medium genres - cantata, vocal cycle, liturgy, choral concert, small - vocal miniature (song, romance).

Gospel(English gospel music) is a genre of spiritual Christian music that developed in the first third of the XX century. in USA. Usually a distinction is made between black gospel and white gospel. What they have in common is that both were born in the Methodist churches of the American South.

Jazz(English jazz) is a form of musical art that arose at the beginning of the 20th century. in the United States as a result of the synthesis of African and European cultures and subsequently became widespread. The characteristic features of the musical language of jazz were originally improvisation, polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythms and a unique set of techniques for performing rhythmic texture - swing. The further development of jazz occurred due to the development of new rhythmic and harmonic models by jazz musicians and composers.

Country(English country, the second name is country and western, English country and western) - the most common type of American folk music of white residents (cowboys) of the South and Southwest of the United States.

Classical music- a concept free of terminological rigor, used, depending on the context, in three meanings.

1. In the meaning of a qualitative assessment: the music of the past, which has stood the test of time and has an audience in modern society. Already today, not only the peaks of high musical art are perceived as classics, but also the best examples of the entertainment genres of the past: for example, the peaks of the French, Viennese and Hungarian operetta of the 19th - early 20th centuries, waltzes by Johann Strauss, etc.

2. In a narrow historical sense: music of the second half of the 17th - early 19th centuries. (this period is traditionally associated with classicism). The concept of classicism in relation to music is not very widely applicable, so in the stable characterization of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as Viennese classics there is also a considerable share of a qualitative assessment of their work as a foundation for the further development of musical composition.

3. In a typological sense: the so-called academic music, which is in relation to the continuity, first of all, to those formed in Europe in the XVII-XIX centuries. musical genres and forms (opera, symphony, sonata, etc.), melodic and harmonic principles and instrumental composition.

Musical(sometimes called a musical comedy) - a piece of music in which dialogues, songs, music, dances are intertwined, while the plot is usually straightforward. Many genres have had a great influence on the musical: operetta, comic opera, vaudeville, burlesque. For a long time it was not recognized as a separate genre of theatrical art and is still not recognized by everyone.

folk song- the most widespread type of folk music, a product of collective oral creativity. Reflects the character of each nation, customs, historical events, is distinguished by the originality of genre content, musical language, structure. Folk song exists in many local varieties, gradually changing.

Opera(Italian opera, literally - composition, from Latin opera - labor, product, work) is an artistic and dramatic form of theatrical performances in which speech, combined with music (singing and accompaniment), and stage action are predominant. The first opera house for public performances was opened in 1637 in Venice; previously, the opera was only for court entertainment. The first major opera can be considered Peri's Daphne, performed in 1597. Opera soon spread throughout Italy and then to the rest of Europe.

Punk rock(English punk rock) - a genre of rock music that emerged in the mid-1970s in the United States and Great Britain, which combined social protest and musical rejection of the then forms of rock: the deliberately primitive playing and fervor of early rock and roll were cultivated.

Pop music(English pop music, from popular music) is a kind of modern entertainment music. In general, this term, especially in Western countries, defines the entire spectrum of pop entertainment music, excluding, as a rule, jazz, blues and country music. Despite the fact that, thus, rock music turns out to be an integral part of this term, it is often opposed to pop music, seeing in the latter the personification of purely light music designed for a mass listener.

Rock'n'roll(English rock'n'roll, from rock and roll) is a style of popular music that was born in the 1950s in the United States and was an early stage in the development of rock music. Also a dance performed to the music of rock and roll and a musical composition in the style of rock and roll. In English-speaking countries, the term "rock and roll" is often used in the general designation of rock music. It is believed that the term "rock and roll" in its modern sense was coined by Alan Freed, an energetic disc jockey from Cleveland, Ohio. The classic rock and roll sound was formed in 1954-1955 when Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Fats Domino recorded the songs that laid the foundation for rock and roll.

Romance- a vocal composition, written on a small poem of lyrical content, mainly love.

Ska(eng. ska) is a musical style that appeared in Jamaica in the late 1950s. The emergence of the style is associated with the emergence of sound systems (English sound systems), which made it possible to dance right on the street.

Spiritual(eng. spirituals, spiritual music) - one of the earliest genres of African-American music. Traditionally, spirituals songs are associated with Christian religious themes. As a genre of spirituals, it took shape in the last third of the 19th century. in the United States as modified slave songs among blacks in the American South.

Hip-hop(English hip-hop) is a youth subculture that appeared in the United States in the late 1970s among African Americans. It has its own music (also called "hip-hop"), its own jargon, its own fashion, dance styles (break dance, etc.), graphic art (graffiti) and its own cinema. Hip-hop music consists of two main elements: rap (rhythmic recitative with clearly marked rhymes) and DJ-driven rhythm; at the same time, compositions without vocals are not uncommon. In this combination, rap performers call themselves "MC" (English MC - Microphone Controller or Master of Ceremony).

Chanson(French chanson) - French pop songs of the late XIX-

XX centuries, performed in the style of cabaret. From cabaret, this modification of chanson passed into French pop music of the 20th century. (the most famous chansonniers were Maurice Chevalier, Edith Piaf and others). Outside of France, it is customary to refer to the number of chansonniers as almost all pop performers of French-language songs. Thanks to this extended interpretation of the term, P. Dupont, Yves Montand, J. Brassens, C. Aznavour, M. Mathieu, Joe Dassin, P. Kaas fall into this category.